Poetry Praised, Recitor Renowned

Soumitra Chattopadhyay was awarded the 'Abritti Shiromani' title for the year 2005, by 'Samantaral', an organisation of poetry lovers, at the Fifth National Recitation Festival held at the Gyan Manch on September 19. The previous recipients of the honour are Debdulal Bandopadhyay(2002), Amiya Chatterjee(2003) and Ashok Palit(2004).

Chattopadhyay narrated his childhood experiences as an admirer of poetry and dubbed recitation as a part and parcel of his existence. He was against making any distinction between acting and recitation. Declining to regard recitation as solely a performing art, he declared that he recites for others to listen and for himself to enjoy.

Speaking on the occasion, Ashok Palit, who happens to be Chattopadhyay's childhood friend, drew a parallel between Brahma and Soumitra Chattopadhyay. He was of the opinion that like Brahma, Chattopadhyay has four mouths, one each for acting, direction, recitation and language.
Syed Mujtaba Siraj narrated interesting anecdotes from his introduction to Chattopadhyay in Coffee House, and made the remark that the latter fit in naturally to the movie roles assigned to him.

Among other dignitaries gracing the occasion were television journalist Debanjan Chakraborty, Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Salim and others.

The speakers were unanimous in acknowledging the giant leap that the recitation culture has made in Kolkata, from a handful of competitions and performance in a few programmes in educational institutions, to the current craze of enrolment in recitation coaching classes conducted by experts.The programme which started with Ajanta Sinha's Rabindra Sangeet followed by Sougata Chatterjee reciting his own poems, 'Smriti' and 'Chhutte Chhutte', ended on a musical note courtesy Sanchita Bhattacharya's Odissi dance recitals dedicated to the evening's awardee, and invoking Goddess Durga.